Roomates
by awesomeIthinknot
Summary: What would happen if an unfortunate turn of events led to Percy and Leo sharing an appartment? Chaos and general hilarity of course! A set of drabbles set two year after the Giant War. My first fan fiction so please be nice. Rated T for some sexual references.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hello Guys! **_

_**This is my first fanfiction and the idea came about during a conversation in which me and my friend speculated over what life would be like if our HOO characters ended up living together, while skiving PE. **_

_**So here goes! This is the first in a series of drabbles, beginning wth how the arrangement came about. **_

_**Like I said before this is my first fan fic so don't expect anything worthy of a Nobel Prize for Literiture **_

_**All the characters belong to Rick Riordan (sobbing).**_

_**If you get the Blackadder rederence at the end, then you're awesome. **_

**ROOMATES**

_Chapter 1: The Arrangement_

As the autumn evening began to fade into night, the cool night air was flowing through Cabin Nine's forges, which were unusually quiet, the lights falling in an amber pool outside the open doors.

"Ow! Holy Hephaestus Nyssa, are you trying to give me brain damage?" Leo groaned as he extracted himself from the underside of the centaur automaton he had been trying to repair before his sister had nudged him.

Leo of course, with his usual poise and grace, had jumped straight up and almost banged his brains out on the wall of bronze his head had met. He guessed his older sibling had come to drag him to bed before he passed out in the forges and let "every mosquito in the freakin' country in" as he had allegedly done before.

"Don't freak flame boy." A decidedly male voice chimed in his ringing ears, "a) you will not damage anything in there and b) I am not your sister."

Leo pulled himself upright and squinted at the son of Poseidon, "So you aren't, good for you."

Percy smirked, "Nice overalls."

Leo raised his spanner and examined it, "Do you know where I could put this spanner Jackson?" he asked conversationally

"Ha-ha. Don't give up the job Leo, comedy isn't taking you anywhere quick." Percy retorted.

Leo rubbed his sore head, studying Percy, his green eyes seemed dull and his dark hair was messier than usual, dark circles under his eyes suggesting he wasn't sleeping soundly."_After everything that's happened, be nice to him."_ Piper's voice reprimanded the demigod inwardly.

"So- uh, why are you here? Need something fixed?"

"Yes." Percy said wearily, "but that's not why I'm here." Leo rubbed his oily hands clean on his sexy,sexy overalls and gestured for Percy to go on, wandering around the forges that were empty of his siblings, he was doing the usual work overtime.

"Well I was talking to Jason earlier and he gave me an idea, so I was wondering, are you still looking for an apartment?"

"Yeah." Leo said, perking up. "Do you know a place?"

"Well yeah." The two guys stood side by side at Leo's bench which was scattered with his projects in celestial bronze.

"My place." At Leo's blank expression Percy pressed on. "You know, the apartment I got with-"he seemed to wince slightly at the name"-Annabeth, before well... you know." He ran his hand through his hair, Leo noticed, he did that alot when he was nervous. "Well, obviously, she's not going to be moving in with me and basically I can't pay the rent by myself. It's not the biggest or fanciest place but it's alright, affordable I mean." Percy caught his breath; "Would you at least consider it?" he pleaded turning those startling sea green eyes on the other boy. Leo frowned slightly.

"Wait a second, you," he pointed to Percy "are asking me to consider moving in with you."

"In a nutshell, yes."

"Are you completely, spectacularly out of you MIND?"

Percy jumped, surprised. "Well, probably."

"You are; you're crazy. Asking me to move in with you? Seriously Percy, I'll probably burn it down in the first hour."

Percy rolled his eyes, "Is that all? Gods Valdez I thought you were going to say you hated me."

"Hate you? Zeus no!"

"Are you sure? I mean you have been avoiding me recently." Leo winced. He couldn't deny it. "Yeah..." he began slowly, "But it wasn't personal, it was because - well you and Annabeth had just broken up and.."

"I was an emotional wreck?" Percy supplied.

"Yeah, and I don't deal with emoitional wrecks too well."

"Well I am no longer in pieces, but I will be requiring a roommate and, I'd rather it was someone I actually knew and liked, so when Jason suggested you I thought I'd pop the question."

"Pop the question?" Leo asked, taking particular interest in the choice of words.

For the first time since his girlfriend of three years had dumped him without warning and, as result had broken his heart spectacularly, Percy Jackson cracked a smile, "This is not a declaration of undying love Valdez, don't get ahead of yourself." he warned.

"Phew." Then it was Leo's turn to grin, "Why the Hades not? Yeah, I accept your offer."

The boys shook hands.

"Wait a second; doesn't your apartment only have one bedroom?"

Percy's expression deepened to a scowl, "Crap. I am not sharing a room with you." Leo's grin got even wider.

"Whatever you say roommate!"

"Don't call me that. Ever." The two turned and headed for the forge entrance as the conch horn for lights out sounded, echoing through the camp.

"Fine, but I'm still not sharing a bed with you."

"Like I'd try persuade you otherwise."

"Dude you just proposed to me." Leo couldn't resist stating as he turned to lock the heavy metal doors.

Percy groaned, "How the long winter evenings are going to fly by."

**_And there you have it!_**

_** Before you all go grabbing your pitchforks about me breaking up percabeth, let me make it very clear I ship percabeth more than is humanly possible; so don't worry too much. **_

_**If you think I am worthy, flick on to the next chapter. **_


	2. Chapter 2

_**And so we meet again!**_

_**There isn't too much to say about this one. **_

_**Still don't own any of the characters, that honour remains with Uncle Rick. **_

_Chapter 2: The Bachelor Pad_

Percy hurried down the dull sidewalk, rain pounding down on him, soaking into his clothes and reflected on how much it sucked that despite having awesome godly powers that prevented him getting wet, for the sake of a few New Yorkers who probably weren't even looking at him, he had to get drenched. With a grunt he tramped up the stairs, wet shoes squeaking loudly on the floor and began churning through his pockets for his key. "Aha!" he muttered dryly; "The object of my desires."

A few seconds later he was stumbling into his apartment; tired, hungry and possibly with pneumonia, longing only for some well deserved peace and quiet, only to find someone else singing loudly and tunelessly in the kitchen.

"_But I set fiiireeee to the raaaain! Because I am really coooool..." _

Yanking off his saturated jacket and placing it on the hook with a jerk Percy turned the corner into the kitchen and greeted his roommate with a glare that had been known to send grown Minotaurs crying for their mamas.

"Those aren't the lyrics."

On Leo, however, his death glare had no effect.

"This is the improved version, you know with all the notes Adele couldn't hit."

"And neither can you apparently." Percy snapped glancing around the tiny kitchen which wasn't looking too good, what with the empty packaging and wrappers strewn all over the floor and a white powder he hoped was flour covering the entirety of the worktop.

"What the Hades Leo? This place look as though a bomb hit it."

Leo turned away from his pan and waved a wooden spoon at him "Which is an improvement on the usual, how?" he gave Percy a moment to mentally process the pink 'Kiss the Cook' apron before continuing."I'm cooking dinner!" he announced with a flourishing gesture at the surrounding chaos, "Fajitas!"

Previously the son of Poseidon had been annoyed, now he was seriously ticked off.

"Did I say you could cook?" he demanded coldly.

"Perdón? It's not in the house rules!" Leo said defensively pointing to the piece of paper taped to the fridge:

_House Rules for Leo_

_No spontaneous bursting into flames_

_If anything breaks you fix it_

_No drug stashes_

_No eating all the food_

Percy turned his head back to Leo; "It is now." He said simply before heading to the doorway.

"Dude! That's not fair- I made the tortillas' myself!" Leo yelled after him.

"Oh well that's okay then." He called over his shoulder, voice dripping with sarcasm.

The son of Hephaestus caught up with him and fixed his big, brown puppy-dog eyes on the older boy. "What was that for?" he asked in an injured tone.

For a second Percy considered pushing past but then gave in with a sigh, "Look, I've just had a bad day, that's all."

"Everyday's a bad day with you."

For some reason that stoked up his irritation, "Well first of all I slept in and was late for college, as if the lecturers need another reason to hate me, then I missed the bus and had to walk the _whole_ way home, in the lashing rain which I _have_ to get wet in, and when I _finally_ get here I find you singing and wrecking the apartment and generally annoying the hell out of me. And every second I stand here, dripping wet, pneumonia becomes all the more likely."He exhaled, "Happy?" he knew he was being unfair but he really was not in the mood for some deep bonding session with Valdez, all he wanted right now was a hot shower and then some crappy reality show so he could take the piss out of someone else's life for a change.

The hurt flashed in Leo's eyes for second and then he stepped back and shrugged, "Totally. Thanks for the optimism Jackson." He glanced back at the contents of the pan and groaned. "Well I annoy you and you burn my chicken, I guess we're even."

With another sigh Percy shuffled out of the kitchen, back to Leo.

That was when the fajita cooking blacksmith dropped the grenade; "It's really none of my business, but I'd like to point out that Annabeth has left you, and she is not coming back. You can mope around all you like but it's not going to bring her back and quite frankly Percy, no one wants to know you when you're being a miserable ass like this."

For a second both demigods froze and tensed; Leo struggling to believe he had just said what he had just said and Percy seriously considering giving his roommate a taste of riptide, but then the words really sunk in and Percy's shoulders slumped. "Whatever. Like I care what you think." He murmured slouching down the hall and into the bathroom slamming the door.

A few moments later the shower started running.

Leo pursed his lips and surveyed the mess he had made. "Shit."

_**And that's that! **_

_**Does it make me a horrible human that i really enjoyed writing bitchy Percy? **_

_**Whatever. I'm off for tea. **_

_**See y'all soon. **_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Ok, I'm going to try prepare you for this chapter; I hate this angsty percabeth so I am going to mend things soon i promise. **_

_**Writing this has become a kind of an addiction for me, but don't expect me to update this often in future. Eventually the homework I have piling up will come to life and attack me. **_

_**You know the drill, these people are all Uncle Rick. **_

_**My paltry justifications will follow the chaper. Try not to be too mindblown. **_

_Chapter 3: Brownies and Boyfriends_

Percy sat on his bed, by himself and tried not to think of Annabeth.

It just wasn't working. He'd hear something that made him laugh and turn to share the joke with her; only to find she wasn't there, or get so frustrated with his college work and be on the verge of calling her for help before realising he couldn't dial her number. With an irritated growl he shoved the papers off his lap he threw his pen down and threw his peen down on top of them, frowning.

"You're stupid and pointless." He informed them.

Thankfully, his stationary didn't reply.

For the most part his work wasn't actually that bad, he was studying ancient history, meaning alot of the writing he had to deal with was in Greek or Latin, complete blessing to his dyslexia. When he'd first got the acceptance letter from NYU he'd laughed. I mean seriously, were they that desperate for students? But he could still remember how proud Annabeth had been, the way her stormy grey eyes shone and how perfect she looked when she'd smiled.

Back then everything had been going so well; they'd survived two potential apocalypses, literally gone through hell and even managed to pass their finals, albeit Percy only with the help of a certain daughter of Athena. They'd been in love and were excited that they'd be moving in together and going to college; everything had been good.

He hadn't seen it coming.

One day, towards the end of summer she'd called him in to talk to her privately in Cabin Six. He guessed now she had tried to let him down gently but maybe it was the shock of it all or the way she'd looked at him with such pity, at the time his temper flared.

He'd yelled, she'd screamed and both had said some things they never should have.

Oh Aphrodite, he regretted it now. Percy leaned back and let his head rest against the headboard.

He just missed her so much. All of the time. It had been four months since it had ended and he still struggled to believe it. _Annabeth and me, we were forever _he thought dazedly _nothing was going to tear us apart. _But her voice in his head reminded him otherwise; "I don't love you anymore." Night after night as he laid in his bed those five little words floated around his mind, destroying everything.

Yet he'd still had hope right up until his last visit to Camp Jupiter.

The memory of her laughing with that _jerk _'s arm around her waist, drooling over her. Octavian, of all people?! The thought of what they could be doing _right now_ brought the bitter taste of bile to his mouth.

He couldn't understand at what point the augur had stopped being public enemy number one and started being attractive. Even Piper and Hazel, who had been Annabeth's best friends had been stunned.

_Eyes closed he could feel the hot Californian sun on his skin and see her in the food hall, Octavian leering over her and Annabeth actually giggling while he put his hands all over her. Frank's hand on his arm, steering him away and Hazel's high, incredulous voice resonated in his memory; "Why did no one tell him?"_

His friends, who had watched him fall apart, spent hours trying to persuade him that things could be alright, even when Annabeth, the one thing that had been good in his stupid life...

His thoughts were scattered by a knock on the door; "Perseus, my love?" Leo's teasing words drifted from the hall. Percy glared at the wooden door; it still bore the worn stickers put there by its previous owner, who had apparently been a Britney Spears fan. "What do you want?"

Leo poked his curly head into the room and smiled endearingly, "I come bearing peace offerings in the form of little bundles of calorie full goodness."

Percy blinked, trying to digest that. Leo sighed, "Brownies. In the kitchen."

Percy was shocked. "You made brownies? For me?"

"Well I'll be expecting some too, but yes."

"That was – really nice of you." Leo rolled his shoulders, "So canonise me; St Leo, provider of baked goods to the assholes."

Percy laughed; "I have been an asshole haven't I?"

Leo smiled back, "Yeah but you kind of have a right to be. Anyway, I don't want to fight with you anymore, so get your butt in the kitchen already." Percy swung his legs off the bed, there was just about enough room for him to stand in the room with the double bed and the wardrobe also crammed into the small bedroom but it was still bigger than Leo's room, so he couldn't complain.

Now he was aware of the presence of brownies he could smell baking in the apartment, it smelt good, homely. He leaned on the counter separating the kitchen from the living room as Leo produced a plate of brownies. Percy helped himself. "Oh my Gods. These are amazing!" "Special recipe." Leo said smugly. For a while the boys ate in silence, it was only until Percy bent over to take yet another brownie that Leo stiffened and snickered. "So much for being heartbroken."

Percy stared at him, confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well here I was, feeling bad for you because I thought you were all lonely and heartbroken and baking you brownies." He was smirking at Percy in a way that made the son of Poseidon want to bribe him for silence even though he had no idea exactly why he wanted the other demigod shut up.

"Your point being?" He said while a sick feeling settled in his stomach _He knows, but how? _

"Dude, you've got a..." Leo gestured to his neck grinning like Christmas had come early "Jackson you smooth criminal."

All Percy could do was stare. "Oh shit."

Leo doubled over laughing. "So who's the lucky lady?" Valdez pressed on waggling his eyebrows.

Percy glared at him.

"Wait until the guys hear about this-"Before he could say another word Percy had him pinned against the wall and was holding riptide to his throat. "Valdez." He said in a low voice. "You will never, ever repeat the events of today to anyone, least of all Frank, Jason, Piper, don't even consider Hazel, the scandal will probably kill her- I think you get my point." He glanced down at the blade between them, "Quite literally. But should your tongue ever slip I will personally ensure you never get to experience the events that result in..."he broke off and gestured at his neck."

Leo nodded swallowing, clearly desperate to get the bigger, stronger demigod off his back, so Percy stood back, capping his swor

"And for the record, you've already ensured I won't have any such experiences; I sleep on the futon your mother graciously provided."

Percy reflected that it wasn't surprising Leo didn't react to his death glares; he got so many of them.

_**C'est tout pour l'instant! **_

_**And so far the above is the entirety of my french controlled assessment. Yay!**_

_**On the chapter: are you horrified at me? I am. **_

_**Maybe it could happen, maybe Octavian could redeem himself. Plus in the SoN Percy stated that Octavian reminded him of someone and the fandom went: Luke?! If so then there's every case Annabeth might... **_

_**I wanted to end on something close to a cliffhanger. Who is this illusive lady? It's not like I have the bones of the next chapter saved on word or anything. **_

_**Maybe my plot twists are unrealistic. So are demon hunting teenagers, but no one told that to cassandra clare. **_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hello again! Sorry for my absence over the last week and no, Hera didn't steal my memories but I did have pile of homework and then CLOCKWORK PRINCESS which arrived and stole two days of my life and coinsequently tore my heart out so frigging much. **_

_**But I am recovering and so here's the next chapter! **_

_**At the moment I can't see me putting Percy and Leo together romantiaclly but hey, shiz changes.**_

_Chapter 4: Brotherly Concern_

The apartment was hardly the Ritz, but in the few months he'd lived there, the cramped and crumbling space had become home for Leo. I mean; sure the roof of his room leaked and the walls were bright orange, factor in his sleeping on the futon Sally had gracefully supplied and the TV with three channels (on a good day) and you couldn't claim luxury. On the plus side, however, he did have plenty of blackmail. Percy's illusive lover, for instance, had assured him dibs on the shower for the foreseeable future.

The hot water just about made up for the lack of sharing cookies, lending sugar style neighbours; on one side they like to blare country and western at 3am (anyone's guess was as good as his) and on the other side the couple seemed to spent all their time arguing and breaking the furniture by the sounds of things.

At least he and Percy got on fairly well; they never actually saw that much of each other between college and jobs. Except for the odd mishap the dude was fairly easygoing and hadn't thrown him out yet, though he suspected his baked goods were somehow involved. And so the past three months had passed in relative calm, so Leo probably should be expecting some kind of disaster.

Despite this, Friday night found Leo in his usual position; sprawled across the red sofa playing "Call of Duty" and about to ace yet another high score, when his gaming brilliance was interrupted by a knock on the door. Groaning he paused his game and pulled himself off the couch and headed to the door.

"Probably Percy forgot his key or something" he muttered before realising it was too early for Percy to have finished work. A little tentatively he opened the door a crack and peered out. There, in their dingy hallway was the girl he'd crushed on for the past two years; Reyna.

Daughter of the Roman Goddess of war, praetor of Rome and Hero of the Second Giant War, she was proud, dignified, incredibly attractive and therefore well and truly out of his league; which is, of course, why he liked her so much. Every muscle in his body seizing up Leo very subtly let his jaw hit the ground and flung the door wide open.

She looked more beautiful than usual, dressed up even; in her leather jacket, green and grey patterned blouse and jeans. Her hair had been braided and coiled in a pretty updo at the back of her head and Gods' of Olympus, was she wearing makeup?! "Hey." She said sounding a little surprised.

"Hey!" Leo replied a little too enthusiastically, painfully conscious he was wearing his usual old worn jeans and 'sorry, I only date supermodels' shirt which hadn't been washed in Athena knows how long.

"Uh, is Percy here?" Red faced Leo's heart turned promptly to lead and fell so fast she probably could have heard the thud. Swallowing past the burning hot lump in his throat, Leo shook his head, "He hasn't finished work yet."

"Oh..." Reyna said shifting her gaze awkwardly "Well, I knew I was early but I didn't realise..." she trailed off and gave her hand a vague wave.

The obvious hit Leo like Annabeth had smacked him over the head and told him not to be stupid (which, coincidentally had been the extent of their relationship at one stage.)

"Would you like to come in?" He spluttered out eventually. Bellona's daughter did not look thrilled at the idea but nodded coolly and stepped past him.

Closing the door Leo let Reyna pass him as the puzzle pieces clicked in place. "Holy shit Jackson, how in hell? Ok, calm the hell down Valdez, you've got this. Try not to burst into flames. " He muttered to himself while shaking his head in disbelief and trying to rid himself of the image of a bright little mark on a certain son of the sea god's neck.

Pulling himself together hastily Leo raised his chin tried to walk attractively into the living room, where he found Reyna perched uncomfortably on the sofa and scanning the room with disapproving eyes. "Your apartment is a tip," she pointed out matter of factly. Even though he was all too aware of the mess, that stung. Leo followed her gaze and took in the faded cream wallpaper, mismatching furniture, a coffee table crowded with college papers and blue prints, a messy stack of DVDs pushed into the corner, tangled video games controllers and various items of clothing tossed about the place. Over the bench that surrounded the cramped and untidy kitchen was all too visible; a mountain of dirty plates stacked in the sink and a fruit bowl which held various parts of Leo's inventions.

He winced, "I'll have you know this is a prime bachelor pad."

Reyna raised a dark eyebrow which only drew more attention to those eyes, he was close enough to see they were a dark and perfect brown so deep it was almost black. "Evidently."

He snorted, the girl was sexy and sarcastic how much more perfect could she get? The TV made an impatient beeping sound turning Reyna's attention to the frozen screen, "What's this?"

"Call of Duty," he answered and then elaborated "You know, one of those war games."

"War games?" Reyna repeated disbelief crisp in her voice.

"Oh yeah! That's what you call Capture the Flag at Camp Jupiter!" he laughed, mind filling with images of purple toga clad centurions flicking away at games controllers for the glorified laurels. Reyna looked at him as though he'd grown a second head while he gained composure.

"Sorry," he chuckled. "Oh, I should have asked, do you want a drink or anything?" he offered

"No thanks." Zeus, girls were hard. What was he supposed to _say_? With the conversation rapidly draining away, Leo's socially awkward mouth just couldn't deal with the pressure.

"So... how's sleeping with Percy going?"

The effect was instantaneous, Reyna's eyes flew wide and Leo gasped in horror "DATING! I SAID DATING!"

He dragged another breath into his lungs while Reyna glared at him and he remembered her mother was a goddess of war, and she was probably armed. He cleared his throat. "So... how is it?"

"What makes you say that?" she demanded in an even tone that was scarily calm.

"Well you're here on a Friday evening, looking so beautiful and asking for Percy, well I sort of assumed... "

As soon as the word 'beautiful' left his tongue he resumed mentally stabbing himself. Thank the gods he didn't mention the hiccy. Reyna looked as though she couldn't decide whether to thank him or hit him.

"Well, I suppose we are," she said slowly, lowering her gaze. "Dating." She clarified, snapping her head up. "Did he tell you?"

Leo swallowed a whole tide of hurt welling up inside him. He shouldn't have an issue with the two of them dating; it wasn't like there was actually anything between him and Reyna, in his dreams maybe but still - plus he'd known there had been someone else in Percy's life for a while now, Aphrodite knew he'd never thought... "Well not exactly, but uh, I can add."

Reyna still appeared slightly curious but she no longer looked as though she was considering stabbing him; improvement.

Yet his shit stirring tongue wasn't done yet; "Reyna... you know he's not over Annabeth right? Not even close."

To his surprise a small smile curled at the corner of her mouth and her eyes glowed with amusement, "Is the part where you come at me, all full of brotherly concern with the 'don't hurt him like she did' speech?" Leo felt a prickle of irritation at her words.

"Actually I was worried about you. Him hurting you." He snapped, feeling the colour rush to his cheeks, even Reyna turned significantly pinker at his words, but she was saved from replying by the rattle of a key in the door as Percy entered, still sporting his black Starbucks uniform.

"Hey flame boy you'll never guess who-"he broke off as he took in the scene of Leo and Reyna sitting opposite each other with flushed cheeks.

"Hello..." he said weakly, draping his jacket over the arm of the chair.

"Hi." the two chorused and turned redder.

"I was going to pick you up at eight." Percy said, fixing his attention on Reyna.

"Yes, well I came round early but, I know now you were busy." She glanced over at Leo quickly; "But, something's come up and I'm afraid I can't make it tonight." Her tone was perfectly even, her slight fluster seemed to have evaporated as she stood up. "I'm sorry Percy." She finished in a softer, less official tone.

Percy smiled awkwardly, "No-that's ok Reyna," he half stammered, "Maybe some other time, yeah?" Reyna nodded and gave him another bland smile. "I'll just show you out then." He said turning to into the hall.

At the door, Reyna paused and glanced back at the son of Hephaestus and opened her mouth as if to say something but then, for the second time that evening, the admired Praetor of New Rome whom war-crazed giants couldn't phase, turned bright red and seemed lost for words. Then she left, leaving Leo with only the stuttered goodbyes in the corridor for company, before Percy was back, wearing a thoughtful expression with his arms folded across his work uniform.

Leo straightened up and crossed his ankles as boys looked each other in the eyes and spat out their accusations simultaneously; "You're sleeping with Reyna!" Silence as widened brown eyes met green, "Wait- "and then a third voice interrupted.

"WHAT?!"Leo whirled around and found himself face to face with a misty image of three more Romans shimmering in the mist of an Iris Message, this time it was his best friends; Jason Grace, Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque, with what looked like the Camp Jupiter Armoury in the background and expressions beaming shock and embarrassment.

_**There you go!**_

_**I am not really a Preyna shipper but I do feel sorry for her, all these rejections must have her more or less assured that she's dying alone (like me) so I thought a bit of romance would do her good. **_

_**And yes, Leyna happening in HOH would be immense. Just saying.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Hey Guys! I'm on a roll!**_

_**It must be all that chocolate fuelling my crazy brain.**_

_**Unlike my other chapters here there is no need for you to worry about swearing, Hazel Levesque will see to that.**_

_Chapter 4: As if Things Weren't Awkward Enough_

Jason repeated himself in a barely restrained tone; "What did you just say?"

Hazel blinked rapidly, "Hi." She offered, red-cheeked while Frank raised his hand in an uncomfortable wave

Leo couldn't help it anymore, he cracked up.

"Glad you find it funny." Percy commented but he couldn't get annoyed, just humiliated; "-and great moment for an Iris message you guys."

"I know right?" Frank agreed evidently mortified.

"You guys are _both_ messing around with my oldest friend?" Jason returned to his original line of discussion.

"I'm not," Leo corrected "He is." Hazel gasped and fanned her face, Frank turned redder, and Jason scowled.

Percy spluttered, "I- it isn't... It's none of your business!"

"It really isn't!" Frank agreed enthusiastically, nodding like one of those bobble headed toys while shooting the son of Jupiter a pleading glance "can't we just end this IM now?" he glanced back at Percy and Leo, "We'll call later!"

Jason however grabbed the son of Mars' wrist when he raised his hand to try and dissolve the connection.

Hazel shot the boys a pleading look.

"Would you guys rather do this in one IM or two?" Jason demanded, sky blue eyes flashing. "Not at all!" Frank wailed. Percy realised the ground was not going to swallow him, nor was crawling off to find somewhere to die an option, so he would have to attempt to clear this up himself. "Guys I am not 'messing around' with Reyna! Well yeah, we've gone on a few dates-"

Leo snickered, "Real good dates." The son of Poseidon paused to whack his roommate across the head "and in fact I would be on a date with her right now, but oh no, she had to go and ditch me after one conversation with this assh-"

"Percy!" Hazel admonished, totally channelling Sally Jackson.

"That was not my fault!" Leo protested, his flaming cheeks suggesting otherwise.

"Well what did you say?" Jason piped up.

"Cool it Jerry Springer." Leo muttered shifting on the spot. Percy stared the other boy down, hoping his very serious _tell me the truth I am in charge here _stare was working, he'd had plenty of practice at Camp half-Blood over the years.

"We talked about Call of Duty" Leo offered.

Percy so did not buy it, "Bullsh-"

"Percy!"

"I was going to say schist Hazel!"

Leo shrugged, "I asked her about the whole sleeping with you thing, she already killed me for that, you don't need to."

Hazel made a choking sound.

Frank tried to subtly slide out of the message which, given the guy was over six foot tall, he was not doing that well. Jason sat bolt upright (forgive the pun) and his eyes turned stormy. "You did not just say that about my best friend."

Percy couldn't resist, "I'll tell Piper you said that."

Jason whacked out the gladius; "You will do no such thing!"

"Dude it's an iris message, you can't stab me" Percy pointed out helpfully.

Jason dropped the sword, glowering "Oh for fu-"

"Jason!" Hazel screamed.

Frank, desperately trying to lower himself onto the floor and out of sight without being noticed, lost his balance and fell, taking a rack of javelins with him.

"Oh my Gods!" Hazel yelped and dived after her boyfriend.

Leo appeared to decide this was his moment; "Look dude I only meant to help so I- I told her you weren't over Annabeth." Inside him, Percy could feel a whirlpool of explosions churning; anger, relief, regret, betrayal and finally confusion.

"You did what?" he asked hoarsely. Behind him, he could vaguely hear Hazel's gasp of horror as she assessed the situation.

"You heard me." Leo said, unable to meet the other guy's eyes. "I didn't mean to, it just sort of came out..."

"It just sort of came out" Percy repeated, his insides beginning to harden into anger.

"Well you're not" Leo said defensively, eyes beginning to spark with defiance.

Percy gave a bark of wry laughter, "Yeah, way to go!" he lathered the phrase with sarcasm, bringing his hands together in mock applause "You realised I wasn't in the slightest over the girl I dated for three years, the girl I was going to move in with, fell into tartarus for and loved to distraction so you thought you'd just tell it to my new girlfriend. Great idea Leo!"

"Actually, Reyna was already aware that you were completely on the rebound. She seemed pretty happy someone put it into words for her!"

"What, so it went like 'hey Reyna, Percy's still in love Annabeth and probably always will, even though he's dating you!' and she went 'oh thank you Leo that's just what I needed to hear!' and then you skipped merrily off into the sunset?"

"Do you love her?"

"I'm sorry?" Percy was thrown, the question had caught him off guard.

"Annabeth, do you love her?" Leo folded his arms across his chest and gave Percy a look that suggested he fully expected an answer. It took him a while to answer, finally Percy swallowed past the iron lump in his throat. "Yes" he said softly "I know I shouldn't but I do."

"Then Percy, why are you with Reyna? If you don't love her?"

"I... well it's supposed to be like this, right? At first? Everyone says it's normal that you go through the whole, denial thing; I guess you could call it. You miss them, you want them back and then it goes away."

"Percy..." Leo began, but Percy was not going to stop, he had carried all this around for months now, like a tonne weight on his chest that was slowly smothering him. He had to tell _someone_.

"Things get better. That's what is supposed to happen. Except it's been six months now, and it's not getting better. She's moved on, she's perfectly happy with someone else; so I thought I'd try again. I was lonely and Reyna was sick of being alone, and it just happened."

"Percy, seriously-"

He shrugged "I have tried, Leo I'm still trying but I just can't..." he trailed off and fixed his eyes on the fading carpet.

"Percy... I tried to stop you, okay? Warnings were attempted, so this is entirely your fault, you do realise that? You have no right to murder me in my sleep." Percy frowned at his flatmate bewildered, but the son of Hephaestus just sighed "Jason and co. are still in an iris message behind you, they heard your emotional outpourings but- wait for it- that's a good thing because now instead of there being just one of us to comfort you there are now four!"

Percy groaned "Holy sh-"

"Percy!" Hazel's reprimand came, but her heart clearly wasn't in it.

_**And that's where the creativity runs dry for now. Oh schist!**_

_**I'm off to practice my Shadowhunter flips.**_

_**Happy Easter!**_

_***resumes eating chocolate* **_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Hey Guys!**_

_**First of all I'd like to apologise that two of the chapters are called chapter 4, I have problems counting past three apparently.**_

_**And secondly this chapter is not the best thing I've ever written I don't think but we'll roll with it. **_

_**I would have updated earlier but then we got the Sea of Monsters trailer and the City of Bones theatrical trailer in the same week!So yeah, it took me a while to stop writhing around the floor in excitement. **_

_**Roll on August! **_

_Chapter 5: The Slumber Party_

It was late morning by the time Leo dragged himself out of bed and padded down the hall in his bare feet to the kitchen, rubbing his sore head and mentally reminding himself to never agree to go clubbing with the Stolls again.

Percy was already awake and scribbling away at some college papers. Leo took a double take, "Er hello... who are you and what have you done to Percy Jackson?"

Percy ran his hand through his hair and groaned; "Excellent question Valdez, but unfortunately this is already overdue and I'm working tomorrow so here we are!" He glanced up at his friend and smirked "How's the hangover?"

"What hangover?" Leo demanded as his head thumped like he was giving birth to Athena.

They were interrupted as Percy's phone buzzed to life on the coffee table, blaring out "Sexy and I Know it'. Percy glanced at the screen and swore.

Leo tutted; "Language man, has Levesque taught you nothing?" Percy stuffed his phone down the side of the couch in an attempt to muffle it. "I really don't know how she could be sensitive to cussing hanging around with that horse of hers. " he paused and turned his angry green eyes on Leo "And will you quit messing with my ringtone? The last time that happened I was in a lecture!"

Leo guffawed, heading to the kitchen and scavenging or a breakfast his delicate stomach could handle. "Oh yeah, it was brilliant." Percy muttered ruffling through his papers crossly.

"Well, wild suggestion coming up here: you could answer it?" Leo proposed, wincing as he forgot himself and slammed the cupboard door. "What and listen to Piper try console me? Do me a favour and tell her I don't need counselling next time you see her, will you?" Percy tapped at his cell, frowning.

"I would, but I don't do subtle all that well. Besides, she'll just charmspeak me into agreeing with her."

"She doesn't charmspeak her friends" Percy protested.

"Yeah well, either way I always end up agreeing with her."

Percy gave a short laugh rolling his eyes. "What you need to be persuaded I'm in bits after last week's fiasco?"

Leo splashed milk on his cereal and wracked his brains for something to say. "Um...no?"

Percy continued fighting with his phone, "It was a rhetorical question."

"Of course it was" Leo replied through a mouthful of cornflakes, "I'm just defiantly badass like that"

"Clearly," Percy groaned, "Valdez, how the Hades do I change the freakin' ringtone?" Smirking Leo took the phone. "Can you just put on, like a normal ring?" Percy said employing his 'cute little baby seal' face.

"Totally" Leo answered selecting "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child.

"Oh hey- message from Piper: 'that's it, you leave me no choice. I'll be there in ten minutes."

Percy gasped and snatched up his work, hugging it to his chest as he hurried around the apartment, holding his keys in his teeth and precariously slinging a hoodie over his arm. "I'll be... somewhere. Just text me when she's gone ok?"

"Aw dude, don't leave me with the beauty queen!" Percy answered by slamming the door behind him.

Flinching at the noise Leo yanked it open again and sped after his roommate down the hall. "Hiding will achieve nothing you know! It'll just convince her she's right!"

"She doesn't need convincing!" Percy yelled.

"Then just stay and thrash it out!" Leo gasped desperately; suddenly aware he'd followed his friend outside the apartment building in nothing only his pyjamas and it was the middle of March.

Percy balanced his papers on the bonnet of his battered little Ford and pretended to think about it.

"No" he replied ducking inside the car.

Leo shivered on the pavement, watching the car speed away and employing language Arion would be proud of.

* * *

Precisely ten minutes later Piper was at the door, looking surprisingly kickass in her Powerpuff girls t-shirt and her hair fell in untidy braids, framing her determined hazel gaze. A sulky Jason trailed behind her. "Hey Pipes! Good to see you! And Jason, what a wonderful surprise!" Leo filled his tone with false bravado.

Piper's kaleidoscope eyes rolled at his wonderful acting skills "Yeah right. Where is he?" she demanded, blunt as ever. Gods that girl had been friends with Annabeth too long.

"Ah see, the thing is-"

"He ran away didn't he?" she turned to her boyfriend; "Told you so." Jason glared at her in uncharacteristic bad temper, "In his defence, I would have run too."

Sensing he was about to witness a lovers spat Leo tried to change the subject, "So Percy won't be back for a while."

Piper smiled, and then pushed past Leo into the apartment, Jason hurrying after her. "No matter!" she trilled carefully, "We can stay for a while." With those words she dropped a rucksack on the floor. Leo eyed the baggage warily; it was a huge pink thing, a proper camping model, including bedroll coiled on top.

"What the Hades is that monstrosity about? Camping holiday in New York?"

Piper smiled sweetly which was how he knew shit was about to go down; "Surprisingly accurate"

"Piper this is such a dumb idea, let's just go back to camp and not bother anyone" Jason pleaded.

The daughter of Aphrodite gave him a sympathetic glance. "Some bothering has to be done. Besides he _is_ our friend and seeing as Annabeth has cut me out... give me a break, my mom's the goddess of love, I can't not get involved!"

Finally the penny in Valdez's curly head dropped.

"No. No way, not in a million years- McLean; pick up the Barbie bag and walk away, because you are not staying here!"

Hurt flashed across her pretty face, "Excuse me, but when my Dad took me camping I was nine and this bag was all I wanted for my birthday!"

"Sorry and goodbye" the blacksmith tried to force her through the doorway while Jason sagged against the wall and tried to shadow-travel.

"Repair boy, I am going nowhere! Percy needs me!"

"Beauty queen if Percy needed you he would not be hiding from you!"

Leo had always thought of Piper as his sister and right now they really were fighting like siblings, shoving and struggling in the already cramped hallway, hurling insults at each other.

Finally Jason's inner praetor won out; "Guys-stop it!" he commanded and instantly they broke apart.

The buzzer sounded again. "Percy?" Leo asked confused.

"Oh no, that'll be Frank and Hazel." Jason supplied.

"That had better be a joke Sparky."

"He needs all the friends he can get right now!" Piper cried defensively; "especially since he broke up with Reyna!"

That got his attention, blinking Leo turned to her, "He broke up with Reyna?" he echoed trying to stop his stupid heart rising. Defiant, it skipped a traitorous beat at her words.

"You didn't know?" Jason asked surprised as he let his fellow Romans in. Hazel looked smart as ever in her blue and white striped blouse and Frank sported his usual hoodie and sweatpants; both of them burdened down with gear similar to Piper's.

That was the little detail that snapped Leo out of thoughts of a free Reyna. "Ok, you guys are most definitely not staying here! There are four of you and there isn't room to swing a cat in here!" He paused and snatched in a breath, "Hey Zhang want to do an experiment to support that statement?"

Frank frowned, and Hazel's gold eyes flashed as she rushed to defend her boyfriend, "Leave him alone! And don't worry about space; I'm sure we'll all find space somewhere."

"Leo, let us stay. Look, Percy is not ok, you know that. We're here to talk to him, help him through this." Piper launched into her speech "You know, I thought for a while maybe Annabeth wasn't either, you know the last time a Camp I thought you were heading towards getting back together. But after my last.." she broke off and twisted her mouth like she'd swallowed something bitter "Conversation with Annabeth, I seriously think he needs to get over her."

Leo really did not want to know what she and Annabeth had said to each other to make her come to that conclusion. They were both scary enough when they were angry, the possibility of them being mad at each other was something he did not want to contemplate. Plus, if they could help Percy forget Annabeth, wouldn't that leave Reyna free...

The image of her standing flushed in the doorway with her lips slightly parted came unbidden into Leo's mind. Somehow that decided it.

"Fine. Just, don't eat my pop tarts."

* * *

Leo opened the door to let his roommate in while trying for the second time that day to don a winning smile. "What the Hades have you done?" Percy demanded.

Leo groaned, "You try getting rid of them!"

"Them?" Percy repeated, green eyes flashing incredulously as he stepped inside "I thought it was just Piper!"

"It is just Piper!" Leo shrugged "With a few friends."

For a horrible moment he thought he was going to drown in tap water as Percy prowled into the kitchen.

A round of corny applause blared from the TV and the four uninvited demigods in the living room squirmed, visibly thankful there was a counter separating them from the son of Poseidon.

"Maybe just a little lightening" Hazel hissed to Jason.

Percy narrowed his eyes into a wolf stare, "I'm ninety percent sure Valdez is wrong and you are not in fact staying here." The room suddenly exploded into noise:

"Hey, I bought this dumb bag for the occasion!" Jason complained.

"We're here to help!" Piper protested with a generous amount of charmspeak.

"We don't have anywhere else to go!" Hazel stated.

"Don't let him force me into cat mode!" Frank wailed.

"Reyna's single!"

Suddenly the noise died down and five pairs of curious eyes turned on him. Leo felt the blood rush to his face, "Sorry, got carried away" he mumbled.

Percy flung up his arms in surrender. "Alright, alright!" he yelled, "You can stay."

The others visibly relaxed. "Well now that's settled-" Piper stood up, stretching out her arms.

"I really do not want to discuss my relationship status with any of you" Percy cut her off. Piper sighed, "Annabeth and I have had a disagreement."

At this Percy's curiosity sparked, "over what?"

"Well I noticed you guys were getting closer at your last visit to camp and you were really good for her." Piper swallowed, carefully choosing her words, "She was upset and you were comforting her and you were there for her. But she threw it all back in your face and waltzed off to California with Octavian again, so I decided to tell her that her boyfriend was a creep and I thought she was using you."

Leo stared at her in disbelief.

Jason sighed, "The result was world war three." He said bluntly, "I genuinely thought we were about to witness a murder.

"What do you mean by 'comforting' her?" Leo pressed glancing at his roommate.

Percy shrugged, "Well I guess it started when I was teaching swordplay in the arena and Annabeth was there, so the usual argument sparked up. Then she burst into tears in the middle of it." He sighed, "Octavian's a jerk, we all knew it, thought Annabeth knew it but it turns out she's only finding out." He said it nonchalantly but nobody was fooled, "So yeah, she's getting it rough and I tried to help her through it, for the while we were there anyway."

Piper blinked sympathetically, "it's obvious you still have feelings for her, I honestly thought she might feel the same."

Percy sighed, "Apparently we were all wrong."

"I miss everything!" Hazel muttered.

"Is that why you broke up with Reyna?" Leo returned to the only line of discussion that held any interest for him.

Percy glared "Well aren't you focused? Turns out Reyna took it exceptionally well; she was under the impression that there was nothing much there anyway."

Hazel winced "Now that one I saw."

"So you guys are cool?"

"No-one is cool Leo!" Jason asserted.

Sensing the change in atmosphere, and the friction between the roommates Piper jumped in, "Well at least we're all here now, friends!" she beamed enthusiastically, "We're going to have fun!"

Hazel nudged Frank, "Did you bring the scrabble?"

Frank straightened up triumphantly, "I brought the travel scrabble for when we were travelling, and the normal scrabble for when we arrived!"

"Brilliant" Percy snorted with his usual sarcasm.

Then Frank blushed.

Hazel sighed, "you didn't bring either did you?"

"Sorry!" Frank gasped, humiliated.

And so the slumber party from hell began.

_**That's all for now folks! **_

_**Thanks for all the positive reviews and I hope you're enjoying the story! **_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Hello! **_

_**(Insert various excuses for not having updated here) and beacuse of that, this chapter is a bit longer than the others. **_

_**Upon reflection, I think I should be worried the amount of real life experiences this is based on.**_

_**Thank you to my aunt who laughs every time she gets the old maid, the kitchen TV whuch has to be thumped to get a decent picture and my friend who tells the least terrifying ghost stories in the universe; you inspire me. **_

_**I can also tell you that Argo is a really good movie, even though there are no Leo Valdezs in it, I still highly recommend you watch it. Plus I thought it was funny that the crew of the Argo II were watching it. **_

_**I had fun writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy reading it. **_

_Chapter 7: The Long Night_

Jason took one look at his fresh hand of cards and burst into hysterical laughter.

His friends groaned, "Wow!" Leo cried mockingly "I do wonder who has the Old Maid!"

"Ignore him." Piper snarled while the fearless Praetor tried to compose himself, "Pick a card Hazel."

Sighing Hazel reached over and fixed her glimmering topaz gaze on the blond boy. She let her hand hover above one card for a moment before moving to the one beside it. Jason started howling again.

"Wow!" Leo cried, "Now I wonder which _card_ could possibly be the Old Maid!"

With perhaps her millionth sigh Hazel took a card.

"This game is pointless!" Leo announced, throwing down his own cards, "I'm sick of watching Jason lose!"

"Join the club" Percy muttered, glancing around his overcrowded living room. Leo and Frank were crammed onto the loveseat, Percy sprawled on the carpet, Jason slouched in the armchair with Piper perched on the arm and Hazel sat cross legged on the floor.

"Well seeing as some of us are refusing to spill the beans on their love life, there's little else to do!" Piper spat accusingly at the son of Poseidon.

"Well seeing as some of us invited themselves here and refuse to mind their own business, they'll just have to deal with it!" Percy shot back.

"Stop it!" Hazel sliced her hand in a karate chop between the two, "Bickering isn't helping!"

Jason resumed the hysterics, tears streaming down his face and hands clutching at his sides.

"Oh what now?!" Piper demanded, whirling around so fast her braids slapped Frank across the face.

"He told you to deal with it!" Jason spluttered out finally. At their blank expressions he started waving his cards in the air, "Deal with it, geddit?!"

Hazel sighed yet again, "At least someone's enjoying themselves."

Percy sank back melodramatically, in a fake swoon "If only we had the scrabble!"

Leo caught his eye with a smile, "Or better still, the travel scrabble!"

"I'm so sorry!" Frank wailed, almost in tears.

Percy removed his hand from his forehead "Dude, we're messing with you."

Hazel face-palmed.

"Is it an appropriate time to go to bed yet?" Leo asked glancing hopefully at the clock "I mean, Gods of Olympus it must he almost..."

"Four o'clock" Piper informed him, "-In the afternoon."

* * *

"You know Percy; you can open up anytime you want." Leo reminded his roommate in what Percy assumed was his most menacing tone.

He scowled at the younger guy, "Nah, I'm good" he growled in return.

His friends groaned.

"We're in New York for the day!" Hazel cried, waving her arms about desperately; "Why don't we go sightseeing?!"

Piper answered; "Because the last time we took a day out in this city, we had several _accidents_" she made air quotations with her fingers around the word 'accidents'. "You know, when Annabeth kept correcting the guides so loudly that she ended up having a fight with them, and we got kicked off the tour bus. Now at that most normal humans with brains would just call it a day but oh no, we decided to hike for miles. Consequently Leo fell off the Statue of Liberty, Reyna took an unplanned swim in the Hudson and Frank ended up breaking a freaking statue at the Metropolitan! Which my Dad remains unimpressed at having to bail us out of by the way."

Leo clicked his tongue, "Real thankful for Jason's flying skills that day."

"In short; the people at the ticket booths of many of the city's monuments know our faces." Jason completed the tirade.

"You think that day was bad? You guys should've been on some of my elementary school fieldtrips." Percy muttered.

The memories made him smile; watching Leo hurtling towards the harbour screaming blue murder with a cursing Jason diving after him had definitely been a high point in his life. But the pain that complimented most of his memories was present there too. A familiar stabbing pain twisted in his gut as he remembered Annabeth marching off the tour bus, eyes blazing with pride and blonde hair streaming behind her. Not for the first time he had wondered how she could annoy the hell out of him while looking so godsdamn beautiful.

"Piper I will pay back your father as soon as I'm old enough to get my family's money!" Frank declared, his face its customary beetroot hue.

"Yes, never fear! All shall be spiffing when I get my inheritance!" Leo declared in an awful British accent.

Despite himself, Percy smiled.

"Don't worry about it Frank." Piper said finally swallowing past her laughter.

"Just thought it was worth a suggestion" Hazel shrugged, "Anyone got a better idea?"

Her words were met with silence.

Frank checked his watch, "Well it did occupy fifteen minutes."

The silence stretched on.

"Right" Percy announced snatching up the playing cards, "Old Maid it is!"

* * *

Percy took another bite of pizza and chewed thoughtfully, contemplating the canary coloured post-it that had just been firmly stuck to his forehead.

"You have ten questions and three guesses" Piper declared, peering at the son of Poseidon over the cardboard takeaway boxes.

"Go!" Leo mumbled past a slice of Hawaiian.

Percy blinked at his friends. "Am I Harry Potter?"

"Godsdammit!" Jason growled ripping the piece of paper off Percy's face.

* * *

The mood was significantly lightened by a daughter of Pluto marching back into the apartment brandishing a red plastic cover, "I got it!"

Her friends cheered. "Nice one, Levesque!" Leo complimented her.

Percy set down his coke can, "movie time it is."

One hour later The TV crackled as _Argo_ disintegrated into fuzzy snow.

"What the Hades?" Jason demanded outraged.

"Oh my Gods, you stupid TV!" Piper bounced on her cushion outraged, "somebody get it back on; we're missing _everything_!"

Hazel squealed as Leo flung popcorn at the screen and cursed.

"Just thump it and the DVD should come back on" Percy instructed, desperate for the movie to resume. The past hour had built up plenty of excitement and while there had been no appearance of a flying warship this movie was great.

Given that he was actually enjoying himself for once, he really should have been waiting on everything to go to Tartarus.

The sound of snapping plastic tore through the room as the TV was knocked right off the ledge and hit the ground with an almighty smack, shooting sparks everywhere. Screaming the demigods scrambled out of the way, trying not to get electrocuted.

Then they gaped at the disarray in horror.

Percy was the first to recover. "When I said 'just thump it' what I really meant was: anyone who isn't Frank thump it!" he yelled furiously.

Jason moaned, "oh man, do we have to pay for that DVD?"

* * *

"And then she realised, the murderer had been in the back seat the whole time!" Leo finished dramatically, dark eyes wide with shock.

The others looked back impassively. The son of Hephaestus lowered the flashlight from his face reluctantly, "aw come on, that was my best one!" The demigods in the dark apartment remained unimpressed.

Hazel shook her head, causing her curls to bob around her shoulders. "Not really, the scariest thing in that story was the broken doll."

Leo scowled at her, "Well I'm sorry my stories are so inadequate." he hissed.

"If it makes you feel better, that one was vaguely frightening." Piper pointed out in an attempt to make peace.

"Pipes, how could that make anyone feel better?" Jason demanded rolling his bright blue eyes.

"The clown one really freaked me out" a pale Frank supplied from the corner where he was huddled in his sleeping bag.

Leo smirked smugly," See? They aren't entirely hopeless.

"They are" Hazel insisted.

"Alright then, little miss gold-digger. Let's hear one of your flawlessly terrifying ghost stories." Leo snorted passing her the torch.

Hazel shrugged, "Alright then."She flipped the switch on the flashlight and positioned it below her chin. Already, the eerie white light made her gold eyes glimmer more than usual as her face took on a ghoulish quality. She dropped her voice; "Once, not so long ago, there was a girl..."

Gulping nervously, Percy shuffled back to join Frank in the corner.

* * *

Percy squirmed in his duvet on the floor and stared at the ceiling.

"Anyone else finding it ironic that we wished we could just go to sleep earlier, but now it's like 2am and none of us can sleep?" Jason asked from under the coffee table where he had positioned his bedroll.

"Yes" Piper replied "personally it's the fact that this position is pretty damn uncomfortable." Percy had to agree with her, she was slumped in the armchair, half upright with her legs resting above Jason, on top of the coffee table.

"For me it's the story," Frank whispered from the floor beside Percy.

"The clown one?" Leo asked hopefully his feet fidgeting above the son of the sea god's head.

"N-no, the one Hazel told" the son of the war god stammered back.

Jason shuddered, "yeah, it was horrible. Worse than that time we watched Paranormal Activity at Percy's when his parents were out."

"Yeah and when my mom did get home you nearly took her out with a baseball bat" Percy hissed at his friend.

Jason shrugged, "she should have warned us she was coming" he tried to defend himself.

"What? Put down the weapons, I'm going to open the door to my own apartment?" the Greek boy scoffed.

Piper laughed softly "at Percy's? Wouldn't that have made you like, sixteen?"

"We're eighteen now and a ghost story has us sleepless" Leo observed.

"Good point" the daughter of Aphrodite conceded.

"Guys?" Frank asked quietly.

"Yeah?" the other four chorused back in hushed tones.

"Why are we whispering?"

"Hazel's asleep." Piper gestured to the sofa, where the daughter of Pluto was indeed, sound asleep.

Then the malicious side surfaced: "We should wake her up; after all it's her fault we're not snoring too." Apparently fatigue was all it took to bring out Piper's inner bitch.

"Holy Hephaestus, maybe you do belong in Cabin Ten after all" Leo voiced Percy's thoughts as he sat up and started nudging the other girl awake. "Haze, Hazy!" he used her nicknames in an effort to reduce the chances of him not getting a spatha through the chest, Percy assumed.

"What?" Hazel mumbled, trying to squirm back underneath her blanket.

"Wake up!" her caring friends called.

"Emergency!" Percy added.

That got her attention as the Roman girl struggled to consciousness. "What's the emergency?" she demanded groggily.

"We can't sleep" Percy updated her.

"So you woke me up?" Ok, now she was mad. Mentally Percy braced himself to get buried in jewellery.

Unfortunately, they were saved by a blast of atrocious music from the apartment next door:

_ I fell into a burnin' ring of fire _

_I went down, down, down _

_And the flames went higher..._

The shock of the sudden blast made Jason jerk upright, forgetting he was lying underneath a coffee table and hitting his head with a painful sounding thump.

"In the name of Jupiter's toga what is that racket?" Frank demanded temporarily forgetting his fear of clowns.

"Our neighbours like Johnny Cash" Leo notified their friends unnecessarily.

Piper whimpered, "Well none of us are getting any sleep now."

Percy raised his voice over the noise, "see now _I_ feel bad that y_our_ impromptu sleepover had rebounded back in your nosy faces and now you're all miserable." He waited as the five sleep deprived demigods struggled to process that.

"What?" Piper yelled back.

"As a fatal flaw, loyalty's a bitch" Percy stated. "In other words, you're about to get what you came for. Get in the kitchen, it's quieter. We're about to talk breakups."

_**Ooh. Yeah stopping there.**_

_**I'm off to resume failing my exams. **_

_**Happy Weekend! **_


	8. Chapter 8

_**This chapter is exactly what says on the tin. I decided to shake things up a little bit. **_

_**In order for this chapter to make sense you guys need to remember that the last chapter, Percy and Leo's slumber party happened in MARCH. This chapter is set a few months before that, let's say DECEMBER. It's also before Percy and Reyna get togther.**_

_**Mmkay?**_

_**One more thing: I apologise for any mistakes I've made over the layout of Camp Jupiter, I gave my copy of SoN to my friend to borrow so I couldn't look it up. **_

_Chapter 8: The Plot Thickens _

For a girl whose intelligence far exceeded the average, Annabeth was very confused. As a daughter of Athena, it was in her mantra to always have a plan. So no, she had not been best pleased at having to abandon her two week break with her family in San Francisco to make an unscheduled visit to Camp Jupiter.

And the paltry slip of paper she had found on her seat at dinner offering nothing more in the way of an explanation had only served to irk her further. But another of her parental traits was her complete hatred for ignorance, so the note had sparked her curiosity enough for her to slip away from dinner early and hurry across the darkened camp, throwing frequent glances over her shoulder.

As she neared the Praetor House she paused long enough to toss the paper into a nearby bronze brazier and watch it curl up and smoulder in the flames. She couldn't help feeling stupid for carrying out the instruction, already she thought the whole thing was like some sort of idiotic kids game, but it wasn't like she needed the letter to remind her of its contents.

_I find myself in need of a strategy. If you can, get away from dinner early and meet me in my room. It is imperative no one knows where you are or follows you -R _

_B.A.R _

Seriously, who actually wrote 'burn after reading' on correspondence? Annabeth shook her head exasperatedly before continuing on her way.

She paused at the door. For the first time, she realised she'd never been in Reyna's room, even though she had known her so long. Somehow if felt wrong to just barge into her most personal space while she wasn't there, especially when the other girl was such a private person and Annabeth had so much respect for her. _Well, she did ask you here _Annabeth reminded herself before checking one last time there was no one around and shoving open the door.

Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't this.

It looked well, normal for a nineteen year old girl; except for the imperial gold weapons, of course. The walls were a warm plum colour and the small double bed pushed against it had a patterned black and white coverlet tossed over it. A lamp on the bedside table was the only source of light, lending a cosy dim glow around the rest of the room. In the corner nearest to Annabeth there was a desk crowded with papers and a laptop complete with a black swivel chair. She stepped over to the crowded bookshelf with appreciation, scanning the packed shelves for any familiar titles. Then she let her gaze travel over the rest of her things, telling herself to stop feeling so uncomfortable, she was hardly rummaging through the drawers.

Then the full length mirror at the foot of the bed caught her attention. She moved over to get a closer look, plucking a black sweater off the floor as she went and dropping on the bed. The frame of the mirror had been filled with photographs. She smiled as she recognised a younger Jason on many of the shots, some of the other legionnaires she only knew on sight and had to wince as she spotted Hylla, Reyna's sister.

The two had made their peace after the war with the Giants and had even fought together on several occasions but Annabeth was pretty sure they would never be friends. But then her eyes snagged the photo in prime position at the top of the mirror. It was a group shot, taken two summers ago after the War, just after the Greeks and Romans had made their peace.

She knew this one because she had a copy of it herself, but her throat still tightened painfully as she fixed her eyes on the smiling Percy in the front row, one arm outstretched to make bunny ears over Jason's head and the other looped protectively around her own waist.

The pain should have been familiar by now. She had been dealing with it for months, but things really weren't getting any easier.

She had made one hell of a mistake, and honestly; Annabeth kind of was an expert on the hell situation.

All summer, everything should have been perfect and wasn't. Percy had been his usual sweet and handsome self and so happy that they were moving in together, but she just couldn't shake the feeling something was majorly wrong.

There was no pinpointing when it had started, maybe when she had been talking to some dumb girls from her school, who had been fascinated with the fact she had been dating the same guy for three years (and yeah, she still counted the six months a certain bitch of a goddess had abducted him for) and fully expected them to get married and have a gazillion babies. It wasn't even that she felt there was anything wrong with that, Zeus, her own family history was far from pristine but she anytime she entertained the idea of settling down and having kids, it was with Percy. Once it was established he was the only guy she had ever slept with, matters had gotten so much worse; "Oh my God! That's so weird! Imagine like, going to your grave having only had sex with one person!" All of her self-restraint had to be hastily summoned to stop her smacking the girls face.

That was most definitely _not_ an issue she was concerned with, but it had conjured up a whole new train of doubts. But it wasn't just girls from her high school that were planting these misgivings. Her Dad, or Piper or Katie or any of her friends at camp would just pass some kind of innocent comment and she would over think the whole thing. _How do you know he's all you'll ever want? How can you be sure he's perfect for you when you've never had anything else? _

It just kept getting worse until everything he said made her feel trapped. All those little loving things he used to do had made her feel so smothered. Finally it all fell apart.

Gods of Olympus, she missed him.

Her attempts to break it off cleanly had blown up in her face. He'd yelled, she'd screamed, everything went wrong. They both knew the best ways to hurt each other and they tore one another to shreds. By the time she had cooled down enough to realise what a colossal mistake she'd made, her stupid pride wouldn't let her apologise.

The bridges burned. Knowing that after all the battles she'd fought for their relationship, she had thrown it away with both hands was the bitterest pill she had ever swallowed. "Too late" she whispered heartbrokenly to the old photograph, "we're always too late."

She was snatched completely out of her thoughts by Reyna's entrance. "Sorry I'm late" the other girl apologised breathlessly "Dakota had me sidetracked about some dim-witted idea for a Kool Aid vending machine" she tutted, slinging her purple cape over the back of the swivel chair.

Annabeth furiously blinked to clear her eyes of the tears she could feel springing up and turned to face Reyna.

Now that she was close to the daughter of Bellona, what she saw surprised her. She must have been wearing makeup earlier because now it had worn off and the dark circles shadowing her eyes were clearly visible. As she tugged her long black hair out of its usual braid it fell lankly down her back as though it had been neglected recently. "I- Gods Reyna, you look terrible!"

The praetor loosed a humourless laugh "Touché."

Annabeth blinked, true she hadn't exactly been paying attention to her appearance recently, but then she never had. Though to her logical brain, it made sense she would look as bad as she felt.

"Never mind" Reyna said hastily, noticing she had sidetracked Annabeth's thoughts, "Does anyone know you're here?"

"No" Annabeth replied, "You told me not to tell anyone, remember?"

Reyna's head bobbed impatiently "And the letter?"

"I burnt it."

The daughter of Bellona visibly relaxed. "Thank Jupiter for that at least " she sank into the chair and gestured to the bed opposite. "Sit down Annabeth."

Obediently the blond girl crossed the floor and settled herself on the edge of the mattress "You said you needed a strategy?"

Reyna nodded, "I do." She fixed her brown eyes on Annabeth and began to talk in a low, rapid voice. "I have received intelligence of a plot to seize power in this Camp. You see last month the senate-"

Annabeth raised her hand to interrupt her, "Spare me the Roman politics, it's all very long winded and complicated. I don't have all night. Let's get straight to the point; who wants to take power and how does it involve me?"

Reyna's mouth twitched in a smile, "Who do you think?"

"Octavian" Annabeth murmured.

Reyna nodded, "I have sufficient evidence to conclude he wishes to depose me, and because this is Octavian,most likely by under-hand means and with dirty tactics." She tapped her fingers on the desk impatiently "but I don't know what they might be." She paused to let her words sink in.

"I'm a daughter of war, it's not in my nature to go quietly or to bow my head to injustice, certainly you of all people can understand that. I think I may pay for it with my life."

Annabeth hissed in disbelief. "You can't really think he'd kill you? You Romans are all about honour. Power hungry as you are, there's no way they would stand for murder."

Reyna met her gaze levelly. "I wouldn't put it past him" she said softly. "I don't know if you are aware of this but the last centurion of the Fifth Cohort we had died during our War Games. She was stabbed by a fellow legionnaire. Thankfully, as Thanatos was still in chains, she was able to come back to us. When you returned from your quest in Greece, Frank told me he believed Octavian was responsible."

"Then why didn't you do something about it?" Annabeth demanded.

Reyna waved her hand with frustration. "I had no evidence; it was Frank's word against Octavian's. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is: Octavian is capable of dreadful things and will always cover his own back. We don't know what he's capable of but we know he isn't dumb enough to leave us any clues."

She caught her breath "As for how this concerns you, it's about far more than my own life. If Octavian got into power here it could ruin both our camps. We know he not only mistrusts you Greeks he also hates them, at the very least he could throw you out of New Rome, I know many of your older campers have settled here. At the very worst he could resume the war between us and Camp Half-Blood barely escaped destruction last time."

Annabeth tensed in surprise, "Is our friendship so weak?"

Reyna shook her head in denial, "Annabeth I have seen that boy stir up the Legion into a war frenzy in a few sentences."

The blonde dropped her eyes to her hands clasped in her lap. "What about Jason? What does he have to say about all this?"

"Jason doesn't know." Her grey eyes shot straight up to the Praetor's face in disbelief. "What do you mean he doesn't know? You didn't tell him!"

"Keep your voice down!" Reyna hissed urgently, "I can't trust Jason to keep this secret. If he's angry at someone he can't disguise it. We can't challenge Octavian yet, we don't have anything to back this claim up and if this knowledge got out..." she shook her head sadly, "It would tear our Camp apart."

Annabeth sighed, disappointed, but she knew the other girl was right; Jason couldn't keep secrets or stomach scheming. He was too honest, just like...like Percy.

Reyna slumped against the back of her chair, "Annabeth, you and I, I think we understand each other."

Annabeth blinked, she didn't know how to respond to that statement. For the first year she had known Reyna, she couldn't decide whether they should be best friends or worst enemies. Finally she decided their relationship fell closer to the first category than the second, thankfully, she got the feeling Reyna was an enemy she did _not _want.

"I don't know what to do."

Given her own pride, Annabeth could guess what it cost her to say that. Reyna must really be desperate, but this was the closest she would ever come to admitting it.

"You say all you need is evidence that Octavian is plotting against you?" she asked eventually.

Reyna's dark eyes sparked, like the conversation was starting to turn the way she wanted it to. "Yes."

"Then what you need is someone on the inside; a spy. Someone you can trust implicitly." Annabeth stated bluntly, mind racing.

"There's simply no one I can trust like that. No one I could rely on to handle this information calmly, let alone participate in a plan like this."

Annabeth's gaze travelled to the mirror once again. She had an idea but, holy Athena it was a mad one. In the plan starting to take shape, more could go wrong than a game of capture the flag with the Stolls as team captains. And yet...

She studied the printed face of the boy she loved and tried to reason with herself. She couldn't believe she was considering this but then she couldn't believe she'd ever have to live without Percy and that was happening. So why not? It was time to rip the band aid off.

Brown eyes met grey.

"I'll do it" Annabeth said.

Reyna gaped at her in shock, "What?"

"You heard me: I'll do it. I'll be your spy."

Reyna shook her head "Don't be stupid!"

"I am not stupid, far from it" Annabeth snapped in return "and don't try and pretend you didn't have this in mind! If you had wanted a strategist you could have asked anyone."

The Roman had the good grace to not deny it. "But I never thought you'd agree to it! I was relying on you to come up with a different idea." She buried her face in her hands.

"Well you might get a shot at that, because this one is pretty damned flawed."

"There's no way I'm letting you do this" Reyna mumbled round her fingers "didn't you hear anything I just told you? Octavian is dangerous, especially to Greeks- especially to you."

On impulse Annabeth grabbed Reyna's hand and drew it away from the Roman girl's face. "Have a little faith. I wouldn't be in any more danger than you are; besides if anyone has a shot at getting in it's me. Octavian has always hated Percy, the thought of snatching up his ex-girlfriend will be too much for him to resist." She struggled with the agony of calling herself Percy's ex-girlfriend and the wave of revulsion that shuddered through her at the thought of seducing a creep like Octavian.

"It'll only be temporary," Reyna assured her, though Annabeth got the feeling she was trying to convince herself too, "Just until we know what he's planning."

Determinedly, the daughter of Athena nodded.

"Annabeth, your friends are going to hate you" Reyna groaned.

The realisation settled in her stomach in a rock of dread. Zeus' bolt, Percy was going to hate her. Maybe that's what it would take to make him stop looking at her with those heartbroken green eyes; she'd already broken his heart but this would be the killing blow. He could move on. The thought was like a sword thrust in the gut. But if it meant Percy might actually find a girl he deserved, who wouldn't throw all his love back in his face...

"Let me worry about that" She said grimly forcing her mind to focus on the task at hand.

Reyna gave her one last pleading look, then realising her mind was set relented. "I will do everything in my power to keep you safe" the Roman vowed.

Annabeth shrugged "Let's not get ahead of ourselves" she said facing the mirror and looking at the girl looking back for the first time in months. Aphrodite help her. "We've got alot of work to do."

Her grey eyes were bleak, her skin pale and her blonde curls fell limply over her shoulders, even more tangled than usual.

Reyna stood behind her and started to twist the strands of fair hair into delicate braids. "Well luckily, in between potion making classes Circe also taught me how to do a mean makeover."

Annabeth laughed faintly, "I know, I had one once."

Reyna twirled Annabeth's hair upwards, completing a pretty updo, then narrowed her eyes, "Tell anyone I do hairdos and I'll set two metal greyhounds on you."

Annabeth smirked, maybe they did understand each other.

**_And there my creativity runs dry. _**

**_And no, I will not be tying this plot in three chapters. It just wouldn't work. But I hope this chapter satisfies you somewhat. _**

**_Yours in demigodishness, peace out. _**


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